(http://www.jewishworldreview.com)
THE NEXT TIME SOMEONE SAYS that Bill Clinton is "doing a good job" as
president, despite whatever personal failings he may have, ask just what
specifically has Clinton done well.

The usual answer is that the economy is
booming and we have peace. By this standard, Franklin D. Roosevelt would
have to be ranked as the worst president of all time, since we had both the
worst war and the worst depression on his watch.

Do the Clinton supporters
believe that?

Once we move beyond the political superstition that good times are a result
of good presidents, there are very few specific things done by the Clinton
administration that have turned out well and a number that have turned out
badly. The most fundamental duty of government -- to protect this country
militarily -- has been very irresponsibly neglected and has created the
potential for future tragedy.

All too typical of the Clinton administration's handling of military
security was the president's disregarding of both military and intelligence
officials who warned against providing China with advanced technology that
could enable Chinese nuclear missiles to hit American cities. With military
security, as with everything else, Clinton's focus is on "me" and "now." The
Chinese military made financial contributions to the Democrats and got the
technology they wanted.

Military security is never a "right now" thing. Skimping on military
spending during the 1930s left us with obsolete equipment and ill-trained
soldiers in the early 1940s, when we suffered devastating losses in battle
during the first half of World War II.

By the same token, Ronald Reagan's much-criticized military spending during
the 1980s made possible the 1991 high-tech war against Iraq, with very low
American casualties, during the Bush administration. A major part of any
president's legacy is military.

At any given moment, it is always easy for any administration to skimp on
the military in ways that are not immediately visible -- on pay, training,
equipment, maintenance. The money saved can then be handed out as
welfare-state goodies to all sorts of groups, gaining immediate political
support in return.

Resisting this dangerous temptation requires a president who looks beyond
the moment to the future and who looks beyond his own political interests to
the security of the country. Bill Clinton is the last person to look beyond
"me" and "now." His military legacy is already becoming painfully clear.

Equipment, personnel, training and maintenance are all suffering from this
administration's cutbacks in military spending. The percentage of F-16
fighters that were rated "mission-capable" under Ronald Reagan was 90
percent. That fell to 77 percent under Bill Clinton. Many of these planes
are being cannibalized to get spare parts to keep other F-16s flying.

Military pay has been allowed to lag behind to the point where career
enlisted men with families to feed have been forced to resort to food
stamps.

Military training has been cut back to the point where even high-ranking
officers complain, off the record, that they are worried about having to
take ill-prepared troops into combat. Pilots complain that their ground
crews too often are unfamiliar with the aircraft that they fly. The pilots
themselves are getting less combat training.

Rand Corporation studies have concluded that pilots flying long hours of
boring duty over Iraq or troops spending time on essentially non-military
duties in places like the Balkans will need more retraining to bring them
back up to the level of preparedness needed for real combat.

Some call these overseas "peace-keeping" duties "negative training." Yet
these quixotic missions remain popular inside the Beltway, among the growing
number of politicians and journalists who have never worn a uniform or
dodged a bullet.

The Army, the Navy and the Air Force are all having trouble recruiting the
people they need -- or retaining the people they have. Significantly, the
only military branch that is meeting its recruiting goals is the Marine
Corps, which is the only military branch that has resisted the trendy unisex
basic training and other bright ideas imposed on the military by the Clinton
administration.

People who want a military career are not looking for careers as social
workers or as guinea pigs, much less as expendable fodder for ill-defined
missions to enhance a presidential
image.